Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture is the fashion biography of the year. Most recently acclaimed in The Wall Street Journal the new book is also the subject of the latest in the ‘Dior Talks’ podcast series with author Justine Picardie and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of Dior women’s collections.
Dior and the Tarot
As the podcast discusses, the fortune-telling and tarot cards that would shape so many of Monsieur Dior’s decisions – and inspire the House’s various creative directors, right up to Maria Grazia Chiuri today – grew from an initial fascination with the divinatory arts, to a key source of comfort and hope when Catherine was imprisoned during WWII and all contact with her vanished.
The Fragrance: Miss Dior
A keen gardener, Catherine would go on to cultivate flowers in the south of France, near her brother’s summer estate, that would provide ingredients for several of the House’s famous fragrances.
Chanel’s Biographer
Justine Picardie is also Chanel’s most acclaimed biographer, given unique access to her life and work by the late Karl Lagerfeld.
Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior
Maria Grazia Chiuri helped develop the famous Fendi Baguette, then spent seventeen years at Valentino before being named Creative Director at Dior.
Miss Dior: The French History Podcast
While not as famous as her brother, Christian, the real Miss Dior (Catherine) lived a remarkable life. She endured terrible tragedy as a child, joined the French Resistance, was tortured and deported to Ravensbruck, survived a death march, returned to France where she was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and inspired one of the most popular perfumes of all time.
In this second new podcast, Justine Picardie goes into more historical detail about her new bestseller, Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture, for readers.
About Justine Picardie
Justine Picardie is the former features director of British Vogue, editor of the Observer magazine and has worked as a fashion columnist for Harper’s Bazaar and the Times of London.
She is also an award-winning author of If The Spirit Moves You, My Mother’s Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes and Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. She writes about Chanel in The Holiday Goddess Guide to Paris
